Quick and easy, classic Garlic Butter Prawns recipe made with prawns/shrimp, garlic, butter, a kick of chilli, and simple seasoning ingredients. One of the best garlic prawn recipes, the whole family will love! Serve with your choice of bread, salad, or side dishes.
Prawns/shrimp is one of our favourite seafood and we love adding prawns to many different recipes. Salmon and Prawn Pasta, Tofu Pasta and Spicy Garlic Prawn Pasta are our go-to garlic prawn pasta recipes you might also love.
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Garlic prawn/shrimp is a staple stir-fry for both Asian and Western households. Every country and family has its own version of it. Spanish, Italian, and English butter garlic prawns is usually seasoned with simple salt, pepper, a dash of white wine, lemon juice, and parsley. Chinese-style garlic prawns is seasoned with soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, garlic, and spring onions. Thai garlic prawns is seasoned with chillies, sugar, fish sauce, or soy sauce. Indian butter garlic prawns is spiced up with crushed chilli flakes, and coriander.
You can customize the seasoning ingredients, spices, herbs, and extra vegetables to your preference.
This dish is basically pan-fried prawns, loaded with garlic, butter, a kick of chilli, fresh lemon juice, and fresh parsley. It's our family's firm favourite and always in our weekly meal rotation.
Why do we love this recipe
This dish is simple yet, so popular because it takes no time to prepare. You need 3 essential ingredients, prawns, garlic, butter, and a few seasonings. It takes only 10 minutes to whip up everything if you use ready peeled and deveined prawns. A perfect dish to cook for busy weeknights or a day you are craving a simply delicious meal. Pair it with garlic bread, pasta, salad, rice, or just plain toast to complement the buttery garlic prawns!
Essential ingredients
Prawns - We usually use raw whole jumbo king prawns or tiger prawns. Add your choice of king prawns, tiger prawns, white prawns, or shrimp. If you use frozen raw prawns, defrost the prawns in the fridge overnight. Peel and devein the prawns and pat dry with a paper towel.
Butter - adding butter to the dish brings creamy, rich, nutty, and caramelized flavour. I added unsalted butter, which is great for both cooking and baking.
Garlic - You will need a very good amount of garlic cloves. Smash the garlic cloves with a knife, then peel and finely chop them. Or you can use the garlic grater or food processor.
Olive oil - I also love to add a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil to sautee the prawns.
Chilli flakes - Crushed chilli brings a bit of heat and colour to the prawns. Instead of dried chillies, you can add fresh chillies, or peppers slices. If you are doing mild or kid-friendly butter prawns, you can omit chillies.
Lemon- Fresh squeezed lemon juice balance and brighten up the seafood dish. Lemon zest is also great to add if you love fresh zesty flavour.
Parsley - Finely chopped fresh parsley is ideal to add just right before serving.
Salt & pepper - Add freshly ground black pepper and salt or sea salt.
How to make it
- First, peel and devein the prawns and pat dry with a paper towel to remove excess moisture. You can leave the tail on or remove it according to your preference. If you use ready peeled prawns, you can skip this step.
- Heat the pan/skillet to medium heat, and add olive oil and butter.
- Once the butter is melted, add the prawns and let it sear for 1-2 minutes. Season with salt and black pepper to taste.
- Flip the prawns and add the chopped garlic, and stir fry for another 1 minute.
- Add more butter and stir it well for a few seconds.
- Sprinkle crushed chillies and squeeze fresh lemon juice in. Combine well with the prawns and garlic sauce.
- Turn off the heat and finish with finely chopped fresh parsley.
- Transfer to a serving plate and enjoy with your choice of bread or side dish!
Top Tips
- You might want to omit the salt if you use salted butter or reduce it a bit.
- Do not overcook the prawns, as overcooked prawns can be quite chewy and hard. Undercooked prawns can be a bit rubbery.
- Prawns cooking time can be varied according to the size of prawns. Once the prawns are curled and turned translucent to opaque, it's cooked.
- You can add cream and grated parmesan cheese if you prefer creamy garlic butter sauce.
- Customize the dish by adding extra, squid, scallops, crab meat, or fish, and make it your own-style garlic butter seafood dish.
Frequently asked questions
We love to have garlic prawns with a toasted baguette or garlic bread. For a speedy brunch or dinner, toasty bread is perfect to mop up the delicious garlic sauce. It is also great to serve over rice, pasta, or mashed potatoes. If you are on low-carb, you can serve with cauliflower rice, steamed broccoli, green bean, roasted carrots, or vegetable salad.
Rinse the prawns in cold water, then drain the water out. Remove the head and legs and peel the prawns. You can either remove the tail or leave the tail on. To remove the vein, insert the toothpick or skewer just under the vein and lift the vein up. Then pull it out with your hand.
Yes, you can reheat it in the microwave or over the stovetop just for a few seconds. It tastes best when freshly cooked and do not recommend reheating more than one time. It can be tough and unpleasant when you reheat it several times.
This dish is 166 kcal per serving approximately, without bread. Prawns are low in calories and rich in nutrients. A great dish to have if you are on a keto diet.
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📖 Recipe
Garlic Butter Prawns
Equipment
- 1 Large pan or skillet
Ingredients
- 500 gram Prawns About 17.5oz, peeled and deveined
- 4-5 cloves Garlic Finely chopped
- 2 tbsp Butter Unsalted butter
- 1 tbsp Olive oil Extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tsp Crushed chillies Dried red chilli flakes ( Optional )
- ½ tsp Salt Or salt to taste
- ½ tsp Black pepper Fresh ground black pepper
- 1 tbsp Lemon juice Freshly squeeze
- handful Parsley Finely chopped
Instructions
- Heat the large skillet or pan to medium heat. Drizzle olive oil and 1 tbsp of butter.
- Add the prawns and let it sear for 1-2 minutes. Add salt and black pepper to taste.
- Flip the prawns to another side and add the chopped garlic. Continue stir fry for another 1-2 minutes.
- Add 1 tbsp of butter, crushed chillies, and follow with the fresh lemon juice. Stir everything well.
- Turn off the heat and finish with finely chopped parsley.
- Transfer to a serving plate and serve with bread, salad, or a choice of side dish.
Linda says
Very tasty
John Wardrop says
Great
Brian says
that was just about the best prawn recipe i have come accross to date.
Well done Khin.
Andy says
You made it very easy. Perfect with pasta! I love both of your recipe and the video.